Braves deserve to miss the playoffs for putting Mets series, and fans, in danger

The Atlanta Braves kicked off their most important of the season thus far with a win that they absolutely had to have, defeating the New York Mets by a final score of 5-1. That win brought them to within just 0.5 games of the Arizona Diamondbacks for the third Wild Card spot in the NL and 1.0 game behind New York for the second Wild Card spot.

As fun as that win was for Braves Country, the chances of this series seeing more action this week feel slim at this point. Hurricane Helene is coming, and the forecast looks absolutely brutal. Heavy rain has already hit Atlanta, and there's a good chance it'll be days before it stops. With these teams scheduled to play at 7:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday and Thursday night, postponements for both games appear very likely.

Nothing has been announced yet in terms of even a delay for Wednesday's game, so fans will presumably start heading to Truist Park very shortly, putting themselves outdoors and squarely in the path of a hurricane.

Despite the path of the hurricane being public knowledge for days now, MLB opted to do nothing. The location of these games wasn't changed, and game times weren't even shifted. According to Joel Sherman of the NY Post, the Braves are to blame for this thanks to their lack of flexibility.

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Braves deserve any misfortune that might come their way after incomprehensible inflexibility

"But background conversations with involved personnel indicated that basically the Braves were expecting large attendance for the three games (it was 40,103 at Truist Park for Tuesday’s series opener, won, 5-1, by Atlanta) and did not want to forego the gates nor work through the logistics of moving personnel such as security, concessionaires, etc. to other dates or start times."

To put it simply, this decision came down to money and convenience for the Braves organization. The Braves do not want to forfeit any sort of revenue they'd get from what they expect to be highly-attended games, and do not want to inconvenience their fans by shifting start times.

"The two teams had a common off-day Monday. The weather was such that a doubleheader could have been played Tuesday. The Mets pitched the idea of moving up the start time Wednesday before the forecast worsened. In the most drastic move, the series could have been relocated to an empty park not under threat of the storm, such as in Texas."

They could've gotten this series in without issue had the first game been moved up to Monday when both teams had off-days and a double-header was played on Tuesday. The Mets were even flexible by pitching the idea of making Wednesday's game start earlier, thus giving them a better chance to play. MLB could have considered moving this series to an empty stadium with no weather concerns, such as Texas, as Sherman alluded to. The Braves were firm with their decision to want things to stay as scheduled with no changes.

"But MLB did not force a change. The league had a much easier decision in moving the start time of Tuesday’s Rays-Tigers game from 6:40 p.m. to 1:10 p.m. because both teams approved of the change. It helps that the Rays are not in contention and the two teams are not in the same division."

MLB had no problem stepping in and making a change due to weather just one day earlier, as they moved the Rays-Tigers game to the afternoon from their scheduled evening start. The difference there, was that both teams approved changes. In this case, the Braves refused to agree to any change, so MLB refused to step in.

MLB refusing to step in is a problem in itself, but why couldn't the Braves have been flexible here? Two games of regular season revenue was that important to them to the point where they're fine putting their fan base, their players, and the Mets at risk? That revenue was too important to risk Atlanta making it to the postseason and missing out on more money down the line?

Assuming the remaining two games of this series are rained out, the Braves will have to use Chris Sale and Max Fried, their two best pitchers, this weekend against the Kansas City Royals instead of against the team that they're chasing. Assuming they pitch on Friday and Saturday, that'd leave both of them unavailable for a potential double-header on Monday.

Even if they play on Wednesday, there's no telling how far Sale can go with rain already in Atlanta. They might start the game and delay it after a couple of innings, knocking Sale out for the rest of the night and putting their plans in flux.

Even if the Braves squeak into the postseason with a good performance in a potential double-header on Monday, they'd be putting themselves at a massive disadvantage having to immediately travel to Milwaukee, San Diego, or Los Angeles without any rest and play in a game the next day. A loss in the Wild Card Round would cost them any postseason revenue.

No matter how you slice it, this is a bad look for the Braves and MLB.